This study is not surprising really. While Pope Ratzinger and his clergy are evil, reactionary hate-filled bigots it is often forgotten that the catholic church is not as fundamentalist in its requirements of its flock. The pope makes the rules and that’s the end of the story – no questions allowed. What he says goes. Of course most people simply pick and choose what they will listen to – how many catholic women refuse to engage on pre-marital sex or refuse to use contraception. Very few indeed. Even among the catholic faithful the ridiculous sacrament of confession seems to allow all sorts of fun behaviour as forgiveness only requires a trip to the child-abuser/priest for confession.

In the US it would appear that the protestant denominations are in general far more extremist in their beliefs – the southern baptists and their ilk

Having been reared in a predominantly Catholic country in Latin America; it wasn’t until Protestantism started making inroads among the populace that the shit started hitting the fan.
I came out at the age of eighteen, and it was wild fun to be gay in my city. The encroachment of the fire and brimstone cults soon made itself felt and the fun days became history.
This “finding” doesn’t come as a shock.

I don’t doubt the fact that the study’s findings are valid in their own right. However, I’m pretty sure that the states with the smallest share of the population actually believing in God and going to church will be the ones with the greatest support of human rights for all. I once saw a map of Europe where these shares were shown for each country – the darker the colour, the more people there believe in God. And surprise, surprise – the darkest ones turned out to coincide with the least tolerant societies!

The leadership of the Catholic church are totally out of touch with the views of most normal Catholics. It is an extremely backwards institution- they are still arguing about the idea of women priests!

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